Apart from the country being so fabulously interesting, what made it for me was the wonderful contribution that both Rebecca and Balin [Zrar, the Tour Guide] made to the tour.
As an Assyriologist myself I really valued Rebecca’s fantastic input and all the work she did… She went out of her way to reveal things in the country which most tourists wouldn’t see – including a visit to the Shanidar Cave with a talk from [Dr] Tim Reynolds, the palaeo-archaeologist [at Birkbeck, University of London], who had just arrived that day to start work on the cave.
She has that amazing quality, so often lacking in lecturers, of knowing when to give more information and when to lower the tone! I hope you will engage her often as she is truly a worthwhile speaker and very hard-working. Indeed, a lovely person.
I celebrated a birthday while we were away and Rebecca and Balin were extremely thoughtful and kind, decorating the bus with balloons and banners and giving me a lovely party in the evening. They work so well as a team together and one can sense that real appreciation of each other’s contribution to the tour. Brilliant combo!!
Elizabeth Plenderleith
Steppes Travel’s guest on the tour around Iraqi Kurdistan, April 2014
PhD